Freedom was something internal. The outside signs were just signs and symbols of the man inside. All you could do was to give the opportunity for freedom and the man himself must make his own emancipation.
-- Zora Neale Hurston

In America, we cried for freedom from the shackles of slavery; we cried for freedom from unfair sharecropping agreements; we cried for freedom from never having to again cut a hung relative or friend from a Magnolia, oak, or elm tree; we cried for freedom from economic hardship as we left the South for the greater promises of the industrial North and flourishing Black towns in the West; we cried for freedom from racial segregation and discrimination; and we cried for freedom to create and own businesses, educate our children well, own our own homes, and, most importantly, define our own identities.

We got it all.

(By the way, did we ever get the therapy we needed for our collective post-trauma and the often unconscious deep-seated bitterness and hardship that continues to flow through our veins?)

We got it all, we overcame. Now what do we do? In the land of opportunity, in the land of the free, what do we do?

Yeah, we got some fabulous jobs, own some great stuff, and stand before millions of people each day to show them what we got. But are we really doing what we want to do with our freedom? Are you doing what you want to do, maximizing your freedom?

You are free to do and be anything and go just about anywhere you want to. Are you taking full advantage of that? Or, are you like some of us who sit around waiting for something to happen, waiting for our ship to come in instead of going out to sea to find it and pull it in?

Are you like some of us who barrel ourselves into a job just because it pays the bills, instead of stepping out on the abundance of God – which is certainly far greater than the freedoms afforded by the laws and legislation passed on your behalf – to utilize your “on the side” talent to not only pay your bills but bring you joy and afford you enough money to do and see the things on the your list of things you’d like to do and see before you died?

Or, are you like others of us who hold on to loveless relationships because having one is better than being alone with no one but the Self you don’t know and are afraid to know because of the deep-seated bitterness and hardship you’ve yet to overcome?

That’s not freedom at all. That’s still bondage.

The prophetic words of George Clinton come to mind – “Free your mind and your ass will follow. Open up your freak’n mind and you can fly.” Though brotha George was a bit stoned out of his mind when he crafted and recorded these words, the point to be taken is no matter what you do with your physical Self, if in your mind and heart, you are bound by anything – fear, doubt, poverty, grief, miseducation, or somebody else’s foot on your head – you are free in name only, still clad in the chains worn resentfully by your ancestors.

Are you free?

Sadiqqa © 2007